The Champions League would be the icing on the cake. But actually Pep Guardiola doesn’t need them to be number one among the coaches again.
COMMENT
Manchester City are English champions. Also thanks to countless millions from Abu-Dhabi. But primarily thanks to Pep Guardiola. The football that he lets the Citizens play is not only successful, but also beautiful. Because: varied, determined – and accurate even without a classic center forward.
Guardiola’s team has 72 goals in their account three Premier League game days to go. 72 goals scored by 16 different players. Proof of how well this city works as a unit – and that Guardiola, as between 2013 and 2016 at FC Bayern, does not need an epoch-making marvel like Lionel Messi to make his plan work.
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Reaction from @PepTeam on winning the Premier League title, again! ????????
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– Manchester City (@ManCity) May 11, 2021
You don’t have to consider someone who has been promoting the controversial World Cup in Qatar for years as an ambassador for years to be the most likeable coach in the world. Technically, there is currently no better coach than Guardiola. Not the more rousing Jürgen Klopp. Not the more pragmatic Hansi Flick. Not yet the similarly detail obsessed Thomas Tuchel.
Pep Guardiola “the best coach” – Jürgen Klopp was right
A defeat in the Champions League final against FC Chelsea, trained by Tuchel, on May 29 would not change that. The last Guardiola critics, they would certainly be silenced by a victory over the Blues. Those who described him as too cerebral and perfectionist in the past few years, as missed penalties, missed big chances, but also too well thought-out tactical concepts were his undoing. Those who spoke of the end of an era at the latest after the quarter-finals last year against Olympique Lyon.
But: Guardiola doesn’t need this title to be number one among the coaches again after a disappointing 2020. In all his stations he has shown that he is able to dominate the most honest competition – the national league, which lasts well over 30 game days – in a remarkable, sometimes effortless manner.
That’s proof enough. And Klopp was anything but wrong when he said after his championship triumph with Liverpool a year ago: “Of all the coaches I know, Pep is the best.”
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